Steele's The Conscious Lovers and Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. A question of sentiment.
Steele's The Conscious Lovers and Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer. A question of sentiment.

Author: Martin Stepanek

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2003-01-09

Total Pages: 13

ISBN-13: 3638162826

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Essay from the year 2000 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: very good, University of Nottingham (English Studies), language: English, abstract: The period from 1700 to 1790 is often referred to as the Age of Sentimentality. Steele (1672-1729), one of the most popular and controversial figures of this time, not only gained reputation as a dramatist, but also as a co-founder (with Addison) of the highly popular periodical The Spectator, in which questions of manners and social conduct were discussed, as well as moral issues and literature. His comedy The Conscious Lovers, which appeared at stage for the first time in 1722 and remained very popular throughout the following decades, was seen as a model for a new type of comedy, called ′Sentimental Comedy′. Unlike Steele, who is one of the most prominent representative of the early decades of Sentimentality, Goldsmith (1730-1774) celebrated his finest literary success at the end of the sentimental period. When his comedy She Stoops to Conquer gained immediate appraisal on stage in 1773, the Age of Sentimentality already was in decline. How far Goldsmith and his comedy can be regarded as ′sentimental′ or ′anti-sentimental′ will be one question I would like to deal with in my essay. The two authors, or rather their most important plays, are very interesting for they reflect, to some extent, the beginning and the end of Sentimentality and therefore provide us with an interesting insight into society, or rather the literary conception of society of that time.

The Conscious Lovers
The Conscious Lovers

Author: Richard Steele

Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand

Published: 2023-06-24

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13:

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We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Will you support our efforts with a donation? The Conscious Lovers was first performed in 1722 at Drury Lane and is generally acknowledged as the first “sentimental comedy.” Borrowing heavily from Roman playwright Terence’s Andria, Richard Steele veers away from the traditional lewdness of Restoration comedy by deliberately focusing on restrained passion and patience over bawdy or salacious behavior. Laughter is replaced with a more sentiment-based set of comedic values. Steele’s model proved so influential that not until 1773 with Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer does the “laughing comedy” return to the English stage. The plot revolves around Bevil Junior who, though promised to a young women by his father, has fallen in love with another. On his wedding day he discovers his friend Myrtle loves the young woman he is to marry, and he becomes consumed with jealousy. Steele states in his Preface that he very intentionally wrote the play around a crucial “dueling” scene, attempting to nudge his audience towards more restrained and refined behavior, hoping that “it may have some effect upon the Goths and Vandals that frequent the theaters.” Whether it did or not is debated, but it certainly affected the nature of English comedy for decades to follow.

The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy
The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy

Author: Brian Corman

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2013-01-21

Total Pages: 615

ISBN-13: 1770482997

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The ten plays in this new collection show both the continuity and the changes in comedy over the course of the Restoration and eighteenth century. Each play includes its original prologue and epilogue, as well as an historical introduction and full annotation. The editor’s Introduction provides a rich historical and literary context for the plays’ composition and production. A glossary of frequently used words likely to be unfamiliar to general readers is also included.